Ashen Sky
by TSLOD
Summary: Zack Martin's senior year comes to a sudden end when Yellowstone Super Volcano erupts and puts the world into chaos. The choices he now makes are the choices that now could mean death or survival for the ones he loves.


I woke up to the deafening beeping of my phone alarm. I groaned and rolled over and reached my phone and swiped it to shut it off. It was the first time in five weeks where I didn't have a morning Saturday shift at the Easy Squeezey but I had forgotten to shut of the 7am alarm. I closed my eyes and snuggled back into my pillow. After what felt like five minutes I heard a hard knock at my cabin door.  
'Zack wake up, if you want to visit New Orleans, you need to get this History paper done.'

My eyes shot open. Shit. I had arranged a tutoring session with Bailey. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and sat up.

'Yeah, just give me like, five minutes.' I said groggily. I heard her sigh and what sounded like a slight stamp of her foot. I instantly regretted asking Bailey to help me with my assignment but she was the only one who was willing to help me for free. Cody started asking for twenty dollars for each 30 minutes he had to tutor me, which was pretty much a 'stop asking me to do your assignments we're in senior year'.

I grabbed a crumpled shirt, which I suspected was clean off my floor and some jeans and quickly put them on. I brushed my teeth combed my hair down so it wasn't completely haywire after getting out of bed and then grabbed my history textbooks and backpack and walked out the door. Bailey wasn't impressed.

I smiled slightly at how easy it was for me to piss her off. 'Morning Bailey.'

'Whatever, lets just get this over with. You're already half an hour late.' She kicked her heels and started heading towards the elevator.

'Sorry, I kinda forgot.'

'I could tell. You know, 10:30 isn't really a hard time to wake up on a Saturday if you have a proper sleeping pattern.' Bailey continued to go on about proper dieting and 'benefiting your health and sleep' but I zoned out. She could be pretty annoying most of the time, so I didn't understand why her and Cody broke up. They were perfect for each other. My mind wondered to what Maya was doing and if she wanted to go out for dinner that night. Then I started wondering how I would pay for dinner as I spent my last fifty dollars on a game on my Steam account.  
'Zack, do you have it?'

I snapped out of my thoughts. 'Huh, what?'

Bailey put her hands on her cheeks and took in a deep breath. 'The readings and sources for the paper you're writing on?'

'Oh that! No.' I felt a little guilty about not being more prepared but studying wasn't exactly my strong point.

Bailey opened her cabin door and walked to her desk and grabbed some papers and handed them to me. 'I did a quick search on the Internet and got you some readings on an easy topic as I had a feeling this would happen.' She picked up a blue highlighter as I took a spot on the floor. She dropped it in my lap. 'Highlight the information that you think is important and then when you're finished we will go through it together and write up a plan for your paper.'  
I nodded. 'Sounds good.'

I looked at the titles on the pages and noticed it was on the Black Plague in the 14th century. I sighed. It was better then discussing the law and tax or whatever Ms Tutwiler was going on about in class.

* * *

After an hour of studying, Bailey turned around in her chair and faced me. 'How are you going?'

'I've read about one reading and I'm half way through the second one.' I replied.

'Really Zack? They are only five pages each!'

'With tiny font size!' I argued.

Bailey sighed. 'Well, I need to get ready to meet London. We're going into New Orleans today and there is this really amazing hat shop and I want to go check it out.'

'Bailey?'

'Yeah?'

'I don't care.'

I sat up onto my knees and began to put the papers into my backpack. 'Are you going to help me when you get back?'

Bailey snorted. 'No.'

'Why?'

'Because you're annoying.'

'I hardly said anything when I was here.'

'Or hardly studied.' Bailey countered. 'I only agreed to this if you actually took it seriously. Anyway, why don't you ask your brother for help?'

I zipped up my backpack. 'Because he started charging me.'

Bailey nodded. 'I would too if I had to do your homework all throughout school.'

'I just think it's greedy.' I muttered.

As I stood up a blood-curdling scream echoed outside. I looked at Bailey. 'What was that?'

Bailey shook her head slowly. 'I don't know.' She walked over to her door and opened it. Addison was standing in the corridor.

'Addison, are you okay?' Bailey asked as she rushed to her.

'That wasn't me.' Addison replied.

And that's when the booming stated.

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys, long time no see! This is yet another post apocalyptic story that popped into my head a few days ago. However, I haven't written in ages and first person isn't my strong point but here we are. **

**Please be gentle in the reviews, once I get back into the hang of writing again the quality should get better. **

**Hope you enjoyed and please review any constructive criticism or what not. Anything to improve is always welcome! :)**


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